Silent Night History SILENT NIGHT: The Song Heard 'Round The World by Bill Egan, Christmas Historian 180 years ago the carol "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht" was heard for the first time in a village church in Oberndorf, Austria. The congregation at that Midnight Mass in St. Nicholas Church listened as the voices of the assistant pastor, Fr. Joseph Mohr, and the choir director, Franz Xaver Gruber, rang through the church to the accompaniment of Fr. Mohr's guitar. On each of the six verses, the choir repeated the last two lines in four-part harmony. On that Christmas Eve, a song was born that would wing its way into the hearts of people throughout the world. Now translated into hundreds of languages, it is sung by untold millions every December from small chapels in the Andes to great cathedrals in Antwerp and Rome. Today books, films and Internet sites are filled with fanciful tales purporting to tell the history of "Silent Night." Some tell of mice eating the bellows of the organ creating the necessity for a hymn to be accompanied by a guitar.

Others claim that Joseph Mohr was forced to write the words to a new carol in haste since the organ would not play. A recent film, created for Austrian television places Oberndorf in the Alps and includes evil railroad barons and a double-dealing priest, while a recent book by a German author places a zither in the hands of Franz Gruber and connects Joseph Mohr with a tragic fire engulfing the city of Salzburg. You can read claims that "Silent Night" was sung on Christmas Eve in 1818 and then forgotten by its creators. Of course, the latter are easily discounted by manuscript arrangements of the carol by both Mohr and Gruber which were produced at various times between 1820 and 1855. In this age of tabloid journalism, it's not surprising that some feel it necessary to invent frivolous anecdotes and create fables for a story that is quite beautiful in its simplicity. The German words for the original six stanzas of the carol we know as "Silent Night" were written by Joseph Mohr in 1816, when he was a young priest assigned to a pilgrimage church in Mariapfarr, Austria.

His grandfather lived nearby, and it is easy to imagine that he could have come up with the words while walking thorough the countryside on a visit to his elderly relative. The fact is, we have no idea if any particular event inspired Joseph Mohr to pen his poetic version of the birth of the Christchild. The world is fortunate, however, that he didn't leave it behind when he was transferred to Oberndorf the following year (1817). On December 24, 1818 Joseph Mohr journeyed to the home of musician-schoolteacher Franz Gruber who lived in an apartment over the schoolhouse in nearby Arnsdorf. He showed his friend the poem and asked him to add a melody and guitar accompaniment so that it could be sung at Midnight Mass. His reason for wanting the new carol is unknown. Some speculate that the organ would not work; others feel that the assistant pastor, who dearly loved guitar music, merely wanted a new carol for Christmas. Later that evening, as the two men, backed by the choir, stood in front of the main altar in St. Nicholas Church and sang "Stille Nacht!

Heilige Nacht!" for the first time, they could hardly imagine the impact their composition would have on the world. Karl Mauracher, a master organ builder and repairman from the Ziller Valley, traveled to Oberndorf to work on the organ, several times in subsequent years. While doing his work in St. Nicholas, he obtained a copy of the composition and took it home with him. Thus, the simple carol, began its journey around the world as a "Tyrolean Folk Song." Two traveling families of folk singers from the Ziller Valley, similar to the Trapp Family Singers of "The Sound of Music" fame, incorporated the song into their repertoire. According to the Leipziger Tageblatt, the Strassers sang the song in a concert in Leipzig in December 1832. It was during this period, several musical notes were changed, and the carol evolved into the melody we know today. On another occasion, according to an historical plaque, the Rainer Family sang the Christmas carol before an audience which included Emperor Franz I and Tsar Alexander I.

In the year 1839, the Rainers performed "Stille Nacht" for the first time in America, at the Alexander Hamilton Monument outside Trinity Church in New York City. Joseph Bletzacher, the Court Opera singer from Hannover, reported that by the 1840s, the carol was already well known in Lower Saxony. "In Berlin," he says, "the Royal Cathedral Choir popularized it especially. It became in fact the favorite Christmas carol of the artistically appreciative King Frederick William IV of Prussia, who used to have the Cathedral Choir sing it for him during the Christmas season each year." By the time the song had become famous throughout Europe, the Joseph Mohr had died and the composer was unknown. Although Franz Gruber wrote to music authorities in Berlin stating that he was the composer, the melody had been assumed to be the work of Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven at various times and these thoughts persisted even into the twentieth century. The controversy was put to rest four years ago when a long-lost arrangement of "Stille Nacht" in the hand of Joseph Mohr was authenticated. In the upper right hand corner of the arrangement, Mohr wrote, "Melodie von Fr. Xav.

Gruber." During his lifetime, Franz Xaver Gruber produced a number of orchestral arrangements of his composition. The original guitar arrangement is missing, but five other Gruber manuscripts of the carol exist. The manuscript by Joseph Mohr (ca. 1820) is for guitar accompaniment and is probably the closest to the arrangement and melody sung at Midnight Mass in 1818. Later in his life, the Gruber family moved to Hallein, now the site of the Franz Xaver Gruber Museum. It contains several furnished rooms in his former home along with outstanding exhibits dealing with the history of "Silent Night," including Joseph Mohr's guitar. Gruber's grave is outside the home and is decorated with a Christmas tree in December. Fr. Joseph Mohr's final resting place is a tiny Alpine ski resort, Wagrain. He was born into poverty in Salzburg in 1792 and died penniless in Wagrain in 1848, where he had been assigned as pastor of the church. He had donated all his earnings to be used for eldercare and the education of the children in the area.

His memorial from the townspeople is the Joseph Mohr School located a dozen yards from his grave. The overseer of St. Johann's, in a report to the bishop, described Mohr as "a reliable friend of mankind, toward the poor, a gentle, helping father." In 1998 it was discovered that Joseph Mohr was not born in the building once thought to be his birthplace at 9 Steingasse in Salzburg. Research into the census records indicates that Mohr and his mother resided at 31 Steingasse. At the same time the Governor of Salzburg, Franz Schausberger, announced a new initiative to promote the cultural sites related to the carol and its composers. It seems that Austria has finally realized that their national treasure has a very special significance outside its birth nation and has become "The Song Heard 'Round The World." Perhaps this is part of the miracle of "Silent Night." The words flowed from the imagination of a modest curate. The music was composed by a musician who was not known outside his village. There was no celebrity to sing at its world premiere. Yet its powerful message of heavenly peace has crossed all borders and language barriers, conquering the hearts of people everywhere.

(Christmas historian Bill Egan, a retired Navy photojournalist and resident of Flagler Beach, Florida, is a staff writer for Year 'Round Christmas Magazine and provides Christmas research for Charles Osgood of "The Osgood File" on the CBS Radio Network. He is the producer of the annual "Adventsingen" concert in Daytona Beach and lectures on Christmas topics throughout the Eastern U.S. Bill has visited the various "Stille Nacht" locations to research the history of the world famous carol for the Austrian National Tourist Office (ANTO) and Austrian Information. Gabriele Wolf of ANTO Media Relations says that Bill Egan is the foremost "Silent Night" scholar in the U.S. and the Daytona Beach News-Journal says that he is one of the world's leading experts on the origins of the carol.) Silent Night. The history of a famous carol The history of a famous carol by Bill Egan On Christmas Eve 1818 the carol "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht" was heard for the first time in a village church in Oberndorf, Austria. As the fame of this carol grew, its whereabouts were slowly forgotten.

Myths and fanciful tales gathered around its origins. Only recently the name of the real composer was discovered. Here Bill Egan tells the true history of this beautiful piece of popular music. Christmas Carols | History Day By Day History Day By Day Diverse and diverting thoughts on the past and present Search Reply This is a pair of tales best suited to Christmas Eve, but I do hope few of us will be tending to our electronic tethers on that day, though many will be, of course. Whatever one makes of the religious significance of the day, we all need a day off now and then, and these days most of our holidays seem somehow to involve some work. So relax, and enjoy the day if you can. In the spirit of the season, I offer the following tales of the unusual origins of two Christmas Classics. True, it’s fairly long, but many a good tale suffers when abbreviated, so here goes: Surely it can come as no surprise that many well-known and greatly-loved Christmas carols received their first performance on Christmas Eve.

I feel fairly certain that most all of us have, at one time or another, heard the famous and wonderful tale of how Silent Night was composed 194 years ago come this Christmas Eve under stressful circumstances on Christmas Eve of 1818 in the tiny hamlet of Oberndorf, Austria by the parish priest, Josef Mohr, and the church organist, Franz Gruber. But it bears repeating: Stille Nacht, “Silent Night”, a simple, lullaby-like melody, may be the most beloved Christmas song in all the world. It has been translated into more than 200 languages, and it has been played and sung in almost limitless variety, from soloists on penny-whistles to massed symphony orchestras, sung by small children learning their first song or by famous artists at the top of their careers. And the powerful appeal of Silent Night comes through time and time again, no matter the presentation.

(Well, personally, I draw the line at those irritating “musical” Christmas cards with out-of-tune, 7-note range straining to play Silent Night on a tiny, tinny piezo-electric speaker, and which, thankfully, seem to have been eclipsed by superior technology … but I digress …) In a tale that might have been written by Horatio Alger, the creation of Silent Night features no famous composers, no publishers of widely read musical periodicals, no locally famous poets, and no well-known singers to give the premiere. The story is, in fact, as plain and unadorned as the beautiful melody and simple words of the song itself. A few facts about Silent Night are now clearly known: the original German words were written by Josef Mohr, curate of the tiny parish church in Oberndorf, Austria. Fittingly, the church was dedicated to Saint Nicholas! The melody was composed by Franz Gruber, an organist and music teacher in a nearby village. The song was first performed for midnight mass at the little church in Oberndorf, accompanied only by guitar, Christmas Eve of 1818.

The graceful melody was composed by Gruber in a matter of a few hours after Mohr had approached him early in the day on Christmas Eve. After almost two centuries of digging, these facts consistently bear up to scrutiny. It was not always so. For decades the authorship of the song was unknown, and there was a great deal of serious speculation that the touching melody must have been created by a widely known musical genius such as Mozart, Haydn, or Beethoven. The lyrics were thought to be a Tyrolean folk song. This misunderstanding arose because sometime about 1820 or 1821, master organ builder Karl Mauracher journeyed to Oberndorf to maintain and expand the organ in the small parish church. During his time in Oberndorf, Mauracher either heard or simply read Stille Nacht. In any case, when he returned to his home in the Ziller Valley, he took with him a copy of the words and music, very likely with the permission of Father Mohr.

In the Ziller Valley, as elsewhere in the Tyrol, there were many families who made their living as travelling singers (one thinks of the Trapp Family Singers of The Sound Of Music fame.) Mauracher shared Stille Nacht with some of these clans, and it quickly began to spread across the Tyrol, and then across the German-speaking heart of Europe. The first recorded performance was in Leipzig in 1832, and the song was simply identified as a “Tiroler Lied,” a Tyrolean song. As the song became more and more popular, people began to speculate about its origins. Everyone wanted to know who had written this wonderful song. By the mid-1830s, French and Italian translations of the work appeared. In 1839, the song was first sung in the United States near Trinity Church by Wall Street in lower Manhattan. In the 1840s, the King of Prussia was so moved by the song that he launched a search for its authors. Several people claimed to have written the work, but for various reasons these claims were obviously unsupportable. Respected academics now entered into the speculation.

Josef Mohr died in 1848 without ever learning of the quest to discover the authors of Stille Nacht. When friends informed Franz Gruber that no less a personage than the King of Prussia wanted to find out who had written Silent Night, he penned a letter to the authorities in Berlin describing the origins of the song and asserting his authorship. Sadly, Gruber’s claim was dismissed as so many others had been. The legitimate author’s clam had been obscured by a sea of false claimants. But soon, the researchers who followed up on the claims were able to verify the details of Gruber’s letter: names, dates, and locations all checked out. Karl Mauracher also revealed that he had copied the song in Oberndorf in 1820 or 1821. In 1854, after much debate, the authorship was finally fixed upon Gruber and Mohr, though some quarters continued to dispute the matter until an original manuscript copy of the music to Stille Nacht was discovered in 1997! The work is in Mohr’s hand, and his notation includes: “Melodie von Fra. Xav.

Gruber.” This document has been confirmed to date from 1820 (it is not the first draft from 1818) and so it predates all other possible claimants’ versions, confirming beyond doubt Gruber and Mohr’s authorship. But with the question of authorship finally settled, various myths grew up about the origins of the song, some more fanciful than others. The most common story concerns the supposed fact that on the morning of Christmas Eve, 1818, Father Mohr discovered that the organ of his church was broken beyond the abilities of local craftsmen to restore. The details in this tale can be amazingly precise; one version has the organ’s bellows being eaten away by mice! According to this tale, Father Mohr rushed to his friend Franz Gruber with a poem he dashed off for the occasion to have Gruber set it to music, and write it for guitar and choir. Once Hollywood got hold of this basic legend, more details were added, with romances, scheming businessmen, and all sorts of stock characters populating the screen and television versions of the myth.

Yet it is all so unnecessary: there is really no reason to add color to the story, for it stands by itself, in no need of adornment. Josef Mohr said he wrote the words of Stille Nacht in 1816, before he had been posted to Oberndorf. Franz Gruber wrote that Mohr did indeed come to him the morning of Christmas Eve 1818 to ask if he could set his poem to music for guitar and choir. Gruber also wrote that he created the desired song in a matter of hours. There is no reason to doubt this account, and there is no mention of a broken organ or mice or any Hollywood trappings. The organ could have been out of order, of course, but no one now can say for sure. I suspect that part of the story arose from Karl Mauracher’s involvement. The song’s origin is no less moving, nor less inspiring, for the fact that Father Mohr simply loved guitar music. To me it is rather inspiring that a young priest with no particular literary talent, and a small-town organist who was unknown outside his locality combined to create one of the best-loved and most widely performed, most frequently heard songs in all the world.

Whatever inspired Mohr to pen the poem, and whatever inspired Gruber to devise so perfect a melody so quickly are now beyond our ability to know. But as I say, the story need no mythologizing; the truth stands on its own. STILLE NACHT Nur das traute, hochheilige Paar, Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh’! Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh’! John Freeman Young, second Episcopal Bishop of Florida from 1867 until his death in 1885, created the English translation most widely sung today: SILENT NIGHT All is calm, all is bright, ‘Round yon Virgin Mother and Child Holy Infant so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace. Another well-loved Christmas carol has an equally unlikely and interesting history. This is the tale of how O Holy Night, came to be.

On 3 December 1847, the Curé (“cure-EH,” the pastor of the Church) of Roquemaure, a small wine-trading city on the banks of the river Rhone in the South of France, approached one of the town’s most reputable wine-traders, Placide Cappeau; Monsieur Cappeau had been the official inspector of wines as well as mayor of the town and he had a local reputation as a poet. The Curé, Eugene Nicolas, (appropriately, we find “Nicholas” again and again in these tales!) was in charge of the local parish church in Roquemaure. He had an unusual request for Cappeau: he wished for Cappeau to create a poem celebrating the birth of Jesus, a poem which could be incorporated into the upcoming Christmas services. This request was unusual because Cappeau was a decidedly odd choice to seek a Christmas poem from: he was a “Voltairean” (we might call him a secular humanist today) who rarely attended services, and who entertained great questions about religion in general and Christianity in specific. His reputation as a poet, however, encouraged Père Nicolas to approach him.

Cappeau was initially disinclined to honor the Curé’s request. He felt thoroughly unqualified to undertake such a task. But a few days later, as he journeyed from Roquemaure to Paris, on the road between Macon and Dijon, he experienced a sense of inspiration and began writing. By the time his coach had reached Paris, Cappeau was convinced that he had a poem that was worthy of a great musical setting. Cappeau had made the acquaintance of eminent civil engineer Pierre Laurey when Laurey and his wife Emily resided in Roquemaure during the construction of a suspension bridge across the Rhone. The Laureys lived in Paris where Emily Laurey was a singer of some skill who was well known to the famed comic opera composer Adolphe Adam. Adam had originally aimed to become a composer of serious opera, but his attempts had met with no success, while his humorous operas and ballets such as Le Postillon de Longjumeau, (1836) and Giselle (1841) earned him both fame and fortune. His reputation for devising light-hearted and spirited tunes grew, even as he more strongly desired to create a more profound legacy.

Cappeau arranged to be introduced to Adam. He hoped to pursuade Adam to set his poem, Minuit Chrétiens (“Midnight, Christians”) to suitable music. Adam and Cappeau met, it is said, in a Parisian Cafe about six days before Christmas, 1847. Their conversation was not recorded at the time, and the later accounts of it differ. But a few details remain consistent, and seem believable enough to be convincing: Adam admired Cappeau’s verses, and approved their sentiments, but he insisted that he could not be the one to set such stirring words to music. For one thing, Adam pointed out, he was a composer of light, diverting fare, and not one to create powerful, religious music. Too, Adam insisted that he was too busy to undertake even a small additional commission at the time. It is sometimes alleged, that, finally, Adam felt he had an overwhelming argument that could trump any persuasion that Cappeau attempted: Adam pointed out that he was himself Jewish, and did not celebrate Christmas nor did he acknowledge Christ as the Redeemer and Son of God.

This is a truly fascinating irony, and it makes for such a wonderfully good tale that it is often repeated, and I myself have repeated it in previous postings of this story. Unfortunately, I had propagated an apparent myth. A splendid notion is vaporized by a persistent fact: Adolphe Adam was buried with a Catholic service in the Cemetery of Montmarte in Paris; his obituary in La France Musicale of May 4, 1856, reads: Les obsèques de M. Adolphe Adam auront lieu lundi 5 mai, à 11 heures, en l’église de Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, sa paroisse. (The funeral of Monsieur Adolphe Adam will be held Monday, May 5, in the church of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, his parish.) It is also noteworthy that neither of Adam’s two memoirs make any mention of Jewish heritage or Jewish faith. His near contemporary biographer, Arthur Pougin, makes no mention of Adam’s religious affiliations in his 1877 book about Adam, nor does Baker’s Biographical Dictionary Of Musicians in the 3rd edition of 1919.

Since these sources are both closer in time to Adam, and come from an era when a person’s religious association was generally considered far more “newsworthy” than it usually is today, it seems odd, if Adam were Jewish, that all of these sources would make no mention of it. And the 1995 edition of The Oxford Companion To Music is similarly silent. So I conclude, based on a good deal of follow-up research, that Adam was not, in fact, Jewish. So how did this fable start? Well, for one thing, it just makes for a darned good, ironic tale. But another, somewhat more chilling possibility exists. According to The Oxford Companion To Music, in the 1930s, one French bishop after another banned Adam’s setting of Cappeau’s poem – known in in France as Un Cantique de Noel – from their sees. These bishops were among the most reactionary churchmen of their day, and at a time when Fascism was firmly established at France’s three major borders, it seems they were capitalizing on a wave of anti-Jewish sentiment to ban a tune which had “vulgar” origins. Claiming that Adam was Jewish simply furthered their aims.

In any case, in 1847, Adam was somewhat reluctant to turn his talents to religious music, for he had no experience in the field. There was no way he could hope to compose an appropriate melody for Cappeau’s words. But Cappeau continued to press him, and he assured Adam that he had the gifts necessary to do justice to the poem. Apparently, this argument won over Adolphe Adam; in any case, he agreed to set Cappeau’s poem to music. Three days later, Adam had the finished drafts of Un Cantique de Noël, (simply: “A Song of Christmas”) ready for performance. Cappeau invited the Laureys to return to Roquemaure with him so that Emily could debut the new song at the Midnight Mass in Roquemaure. They joined him on his journey. The premiere of Un Cantique de Noël, was an instant success. Word of the new and haunting Christmas song spread quickly through the South of France, and by Christmas of 1848, Un Cantique de Noël was being sung in Paris, and from Cherbourg to Grasse, Strasbourg to Toulon.

One popular musical magazine declared that Cappeau and Adam had written “La Marseillaise religieuse,” a religious national anthem. The song was enthusiastically embraced in churches throughout France, and its popularity in France has never faded, though, strangely enough, as early as 1850, senior clerics in France were criticizing the song as being “unmusical” and “without religious spirit.” One wonders how such a claim could be made: Minuit, chrétiens, c’est l’heure solennelle, Où l’Homme-Dieu descendit jusqu’à nous Pour effacer la tache originelle Et de Son Père arrêter le courroux. Le monde entier tressaille d’espérance En cette nuit qui nous donne un Sauveur. Peuple à genoux, attends ta délivrance. Noël, Noël, voici le Rédempteur, Noël, Noël, voici le Rédempteur! Midnight, Christians, it is the solemn hour, Where the God-made-man descends among us To erase the original sin And with his Father halts the damage.

The whole world expects in hope On this night when we are given a savior. People, on your knees, await your deliverance! Christmas, Christmas, here comes the Redeemer! Christmas, Christmas, here comes the Redeemer! By 1856, a former Unitarian minister from Massachusetts, John Sullivan Dwight, had heard the beautiful song and he determined that it needed to be brought to America. Dwight was the founder and publisher of Dwight’s Journal Of Music, which would become the most influential musical publication in 19th Century America. As a leading music critic in the United States, Dwight continually looked for new music from Europe that would appeal to an American aesthetic. When he came upon Un Cantique de Noël, Dwight was sure he had discovered something that simply had to be published in America. As a Unitarian and ardent abolitionist, Dwight was especially moved by the words of the third verse of the song: Le Rédempteur a brise toute entrave, La Terre est libre et le Ciel est ouvert. Il voit un frère où n’était qu’un esclave, L’amour unit ceux qu’enchainait le fer.

The Redeemer has broken every shackle, The Earth is free and Heaven is open. He sees a brother where was not but a slave, Love unites those whom iron enchains. The familiar English words which we today know as O Holy Night are Dwight’s translation. Because he faithfully translated Cappeau’s anti-slavery sentiments, Dwight’s O Holy Night was unpopular in the South, and one large and influential Southern church convention officially forbade its use in their churches. This ban was formally lifted only within surprisingly recent memory, but was no more effective in Dixieland than it had been in France. The beauty of the song naturally endeared it to listeners despite its anti-slavery bent. O Holy Night! O holy night, the stars are brightly shining; It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth! Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born! O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His Gospel is peace. Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother And in His Name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, Let all within us praise His holy Name! Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever! His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim! His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim! Thus was written one of the most touching and beautiful of Christmas songs, by a most unlikely trio of an agnostic, a comic opera composer, and a Transcendentalist. That its authors were so diverse in no way detracts from the song and its message. Indeed, it seems to me, such a stunningly beautiful product of such an unlikely grouping makes the song and its sentiments all the more universal. SOURCES: I had no idea of just how interesting the tale of O Holy Night was when I started researching it. I wondered, since Silent Night is so well-known, whether there might be something worth telling about O Holy Night.

I quickly learned that Dwight was a Unitarian – I am always fascinated to find how much American Christmas music has been written by Unitarians – and I thought that was a possible point of interest. As I read further, I discovered that the tale was even more interesting than I had ever imagined. Most descriptions of the history of this beloved Christmas carol are too brief to offer the depth that I have tried to provide. To learn the details of this tale, I had to look at many websites. There are really too many to list, but a search for “Cantique de Noel” and/or “O Holy Night” and/or “Adolphe Adam” and/or “Placide Cappeau” should provide ample data. However, to further fill in the details of the story I had to look into several French language websites. A search for “Minuit Chrétien” should provide a great deal of information. Any errors in the above details are most likely due to my own limitations in reading the French of these sites: About Cappeau: “ #8221 ; The translations contained herein are my doing; if there are mistakes or corrections that need to be made, I would gladly receive them.

I have done my level best to provide an accurate and documentable account of this fascinating tale, and I would be pleased to ensure even greater accuracy. I had far rather be right than consistent!) While there are several websites in both English and French which repeat the tale of Adam as Jewish, I cannot find one which offers independent verification (other than links to similarly undocumented sites!) For more detail about Adam’s non-Jewishness, there are several reputable sources which make the tale implausible by complete absence of the topic; the ones I have referenced above are: Adolphe Adam, Sa Vie, Ca Carriere: Ses Memoires Artistiques; Arthur Pougin, G. Charpentier – Paris, 1877; (Available on Google Books.) Baker’s Biographical Dictionary Of Musicians, 3rd edition; Alfred Remy, ed.: G.

Schirmer, 1919; (Available on Google Books.) The Oxford Companion To Music, 10th edition; John Owen Ward, ed.: Oxford University Press, 1995; ISBN: 0193113066 Sources for Silent Night include the D’Aulaire’s 1994 article in the December edition of Reader’s Digest, the above mentioned Oxford Companion, and innumerable Christmas songbooks as well as numerous, well-documented websites, including Oberndorf’s informative official site which offers its presentation many languages: The story behind the Christmas carol Silent Night Josef Mohr, author / Franz Gruber, composer "And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night" -- Luke 2:8 The reason "Silent Night" was created: How the world's most famous Christmas carol came to be written and set to music While we were serving as missionaries in Europe we visited a small little church in Austria.

That church was the birthplace of "Silent Night." Here's the story how this most famous of Christmas carols came to be written: In 1818, a roving band of actors was performing in towns throughout the Austrian Alps. On December 23 they arrived at Oberndorf, a village near Salzburg where they were to re-enact the story of Christ's birth in the small Church of St. Nicholas. Unfortunately, the St. Nicholas' church organ wasn't working and would not be repaired before Christmas. (Note: some versions of the story point to mice as the problem; others say rust was the culprit) Because the church organ was out of commission, the actors presented their Christmas drama in a private home. That Christmas presentation of the events in the first chapters of Matthew and Luke put assistant pastor Josef Mohr in a meditative mood. Instead of walking straight to his house that night, Mohr took a longer way home. The longer path took him up over a hill overlooking the village. From that hilltop, Mohr looked down on the peaceful snow-covered village. Reveling in majestic silence of the wintry night, Mohr gazed down at the glowing Christmas-card like scene.

His thoughts about the Christmas play he had just seen made him remember a poem he had written a couple of years before. That poem was about the night when angels announced the birth of the long-awaited Messiah to shepherds on a hillside. Mohr decided those words might make a good carol for his congregation the following evening at their Christmas eve service. The one problem was that he didn't have any music to which that poem could be sung. So, the next day Mohr went to see the church organist, Franz Xaver Gruber. Gruber only had a few hours to come up with a melody which could be sung with a guitar. However, by that evening, Gruber had managed to compose a musical setting for the poem. It no longer mattered to Mohr and Gruber that their church organ was inoperable. They now had a Christmas carol that could be sung without that organ. On Christmas Eve, the little Oberndorf congregation heard Gruber and Mohr sing their new composition to the accompaniment of Gruber's guitar. Weeks later, well-known organ builder Karl Mauracher arrived in Oberndorf to fix the organ in St. Nicholas church.

When Mauracher finished, he stepped back to let Gruber test the instrument. When Gruber sat down, his fingers began playing the simple melody he had written for Mohr's Christmas poem. Deeply impressed, Mauracher took copies of the music and words of "Silent Night" back to his own Alpine village, Kapfing. There, two well-known families of singers — the Rainers and the Strassers — heard it. Captivated by "Silent Night," both groups put the new song into their Christmas season repertoire. Silent night! holy night! Liturgical Year : Activities : Familiar Hymns and Carols | Catholic Culture Seasons (0) DIRECTIONS After the Reformation most of the old hymns and carols were no longer sung, and consequently forgotten in many countries, until their revival in the nineteenth century. Christmas carols in general were discouraged by the Calvinists, who substituted metrical psalms in their place. Carol singing was altogether suppressed by the Puritans, for instance. Following the restoration of Christmas in England, however, there were numerous festive songs in praise of the Feast, but very few religious carols.

One of the few, however, that has become a favorite among English-speaking nations is the ballad, "While shepherds watched their flocks by night," written by Nahum Tate (1715). Its familiar music was taken from the "Christmas melody" of Handel''s opera Siroe, and arranged in the present setting by Richard Storrs Willis, in 1850. Even as late as 1823, an English collector of Christmas lore, William Hone (1842), wrote in his Ancient Mysteries that carols were considered as "something past," and had no place in the nineteenth century. The Methodist revival in the eighteenth century, however, had inspired a number of modern hymns, first used only in Methodist churches, but gradually welcomed among all English-speaking people. The best-known of these is "Hark, the herald angels sing," written by Charles Wesley. The music was adapted from Mendelssohn''s Festgesang (written in 1840) by William H. Cummings, organist at Waltham Abbey, England, in 1885.

Another popular English "carol" of the last century is the song "Good King Wenceslaus." This is not a Christmas carol in the strict sense, but rather the poetic story of a famous miracle ascribed in medieval legend to St. Wenceslaus, Martyr, Duke of Bohemia (935). The miracle, according to the poem, occurred "on the day of Stephen" (December twenty-sixth), and thus became one of the English Christmas carols. The tune was originally a sixteenth century spring canticle and the words were written by John M. Neale (1866). The carol "Joy to the world! The Lord is come," came from the pen of an English poet, Isaac Watts (1748). Lowell Mason (1872) of Medfield, Massachusetts, composed the music from tunes found in Handel''s Messiah. This carol first appeared in print in 1839 and has become one of America''s favorites. The Lutherans in Germany wrote new hymns for their own use.

Among these are some of the best modern carols, such as Martin Luther''s delightful song, Vom Himmel hoch da komm'' ich her (From heaven above I come to you), which he wrote in 1535. Bach composed a harmonization for it in his Christmas Oratorio. Another carol ascribed to Martin Luther, and widely used in America, is the beautiful "Away in a manger." It is usually called "Luther''s cradle hymn," though the words and music were not written by him. It might very well have been inspired, however, by the second part of the first stanza of Luther''s hymn Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schar, which starts with the line, "Ein Kindlein zart, das liegt dort in der Krippen" (Away there in the manger a little Infant lies). The familiar English text is of American origin, very likely written in one of the settlements of German Lutherans in Pennsylvania. The poem appeared in print in Philadelphia, 1885. Since then, forty-one settings have been written for this carol; the most popular ones are the tunes composed by James R.

Murray (who, erroneously, ascribed the authorship of the poem to Luther) in 1887, and by William James Kirkpatrick (1921). Within the past two centuries a number of excellent carols have been written in Germany, many being adopted as popular church hymns. Some have become favorite songs in other countries. The best-known of these are: O du fröhliche . . .(O, thou joyful Christmas time), a popular carol, written by Johann Falk in 1816. The tune was taken from an old Sicilian Madonna-hymn in Latin, O Sanctissima. O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree), an early nineteenth century carol, is familiar in this country as the tune to which the words of Maryland, My Maryland are set. Ihr Kinderlein, kommet (O come, all ye children), written by Christoph von Schmid (1854) and sung to a tune composed by Johann A. P. Schulz (1800), has become the favorite children''s carol in Germany and is now frequently heard in churches in this country.

The first American carol was written by the famous missionary of the Huron Indians, saint and martyr, John de Brebeuf, S.J. (1649), who labored among the Hurons from 1626 until he was captured and slowly tortured to death by the savage Iroquois who brutally attacked and destroyed the Huron mission in 1649 and 1650. Father Brebeuf wrote in the Huron language the Christmas hymn Jesous Ahatonnia (Jesus is born), which he adapted from a sixteenth century French folk song. This hymn was preserved by the Hurons who escaped the devastating attacks of the Iroquois and were later settled by their missionaries in a reservation at Loretto, near Quebec. There Father Étienne de Villeneuve recorded the words of the hymn; they were found among his papers after his death (1794) and later published with a French translation. In recent years Brebeuf''s hymn has been re-introduced into the treasury of American Christmas carols. J. E. Middleton, of Toronto, wrote a free English translation to fit the ancient French melody.

The music was arranged by Edith Lovell Thomas, music director at the church in Radburn, New Jersey. Here is the second stanza of Brebeuf''s hymn in the original Huron language and the English translation. (The Hurons have no M. Whenever it occurred in foreign words, the missionaries substituted for it the French diphthong ou, as in the name of the Blessed Virgin, which was written "Ouarie" and pronounced "Warie" as in the first word of the third line in the following Huron text.) Aloki ekwatatennonten shekwachiendaen As they proclaim, has come this morn Of Mary pure. Let us adore. Jesus is born. A great number of beautiful American carols were introduced in the last century, inspired not only by the Methodist revival but also as a result of the widespread renascence of Christmas customs. These American carols are quite different from the average English Christmas songs during the past centuries because they reflect a religious spirit, while most early English carols praise only the external pleasures of feasting, reveling, and general good will, without direct reference to the Nativity of Christ. "It came upon the midnight clear" was written by Edmund H.

Sears (1876), a Unitarian minister of Weston, Massachusetts, and set to music by Richard S. Willis (1900), a journalist and editor in Detroit (in his youth, a personal friend of Mendelssohn). One of the most beloved of American carols is the famous "O little town of Bethlehem" written by Phillips Brooks (1893), well-known former rector of Trinity church (Episcopal) in Boston, and later Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts. He visited the Holy Land, and the impression made on him by the Christ Child''s birthplace inspired him to write this poem three years after his return to Holy Trinity church in Philadelphia, in 1865, where he was then stationed. Louis H. Redner (1908), the organist there and teacher in the church school, wrote the tune. It was first sung by the children of Holy Trinity Sunday school, on Christmas 1868. "We three kings of Orient are" was written and set to music in 1857, by John Henry Hopkins Jr. (1891), an Episcopalian minister.

It was published in 1883 and has been popular with children ever since. Another famous American carol is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow''s poem entitled "Christmas Bells" ("I heard the bells on Christmas Day"). He wrote it for Christmas 1863, and the poem reflects the horrors of the Civil War which had afflicted his own family, his son, a lieutenant in the army, having been seriously wounded. Then from each black, accursed mouth The cannon thundered in the South, And with the sound The Right prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men!" The tune used for Longfellow''s poem is called "Waltham" and was composed by the English organist, John Baptist Calkin (1905). Other familiar carols in this country include: "Angels we have heard on high," most probably a translation of an old French or Flemish antiphon-hymn of the sixteenth century.

(An antiphon-hymn is a free poetic translation, in the vernacular, of one or more antiphon verses in liturgical texts, like the Divine Office of the breviary, or the texts used in the Mass and at Vespers.) This particular hymn was probably inspired by the antiphons of the Lauds in the Divine Office of Christmas day. The present version of the English text was written by Earl Marlatt, Dean of the School of Theology at Boston University, in 1937; the arrangement for the "Gloria" was made by Edward Shippen Barnes, in 1937. A startling example of nineteenth century American folk-music from the Kentucky mountains, is the song, "Christ was born in Bethlehem, and Mary was his niece." Another popular one, "The snow lay on the ground," is of uncertain origin. The melody was taken from an old Italian pifferari (pipers'') melody. One of the favorites among many Negro contributions to American Christmas music is "Rise up, shepherd, an'' foller." The well-known Christmas song "O Holy Night" is of French origin.

Adolphe Charles Adam (1856), Professor at the Paris Conservatory of Music, wrote the tune to a poem (Cantique de Noël) of M. Cappeau de Roquemaure. The English translation was made by John Sullivan Dwight (1893). Despite the devoted research of musical scholars the origin of the beloved Christmas hymn Adeste Fideles (O Come, All Ye Faithful) is still shrouded in mystery. The original Latin poem is sometimes ascribed to St. Bonaventure (1274), a Franciscan priest, later Archbishop and Cardinal. However, the original manuscripts, containing text and tune, date from the eighteenth century and are signed by John Francis Wade (1786), a music dealer of the English Catholic colony at Douay, France. Marcus Antonius de Fonseca (Portogallo), chapel-master to the king of Portugal (1830), has also been mentioned as composer of the music. This tune is reported to have been sung at the Portuguese embassy chapel in London, at the end of the eighteenth century. Dr.

Frederick Oakely (1880), an Anglican minister and later Catholic priest, wrote the English version of the text in 1841. More recent contributions include Gesu Bambino, words by Frederick Marten and music by Pietro Yon (1943), organist and choir-master of St. Patrick''s Cathedral in New York; it is contrapuntal, in the pastoral manner, against the Adeste Fideles melody. Another favorite is "The world''s desire" by G. K. Chesterton. In Austria — especially its Alpine provinces — many parishes had, and some still retain, their local poets who continue to add new songs to the old treasury. In little towns and on the farms of the Alpine sections, men and women of "singing families," and the rural choirs are continually improvising words and music like minstrels of old. These simple folk have a native instinct for music and poetry. Many of them play instruments (violin, flute, zither, guitar), and improvise Christmas songs as they gather round the hearth.

Any student of Christmas lore will find in Austria and Bavaria a rich treasury of popular carols, ancient and modern, hidden away in little country places. Most of them as yet are unknown to the world in general, though the famous Trapp singers have brought many of them to this country and they are now included in many Christmas programs here. One such familiar Austrian carol, written by a parish priest in the small town of Oberndorf, near Salzburg, in 1818, is the familiar Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht (Silent Night, Holy Night). It had been hidden among the manuscripts of the church choir for some time, until it was found by a music-lover who brought it to the Rainers, a family of singers, in the Tyrol (Zillertal). They began to sing it at their concerts and it gradually became widely used in Austria and Germany. On their American concert tour (1839-1843) they brought the new carol with them and sang it before large audiences.27 Within a few years it conquered the hearts of the nation.

Not only in America but all over the world "Silent Night" has become the most beloved of all carols, a truly international Christmas anthem. Here is the story of its origin: On Christmas eve, 1818, the parish priest of Oberndorf, Joseph Mohr, was notified that repairs of the church organ (which had broken down a few days before) could not be finished in time for midnight Mass. This was a great disappointment to the priest and his flock, since the music for the High Mass which the choir had prepared could not be sung. To lessen the disappointment, Father Mohr decided to surprise his people with a new Christmas song. He went to work immediately and wrote three stanzas of a carol, the first stanza of which was inspired by the sight of a baby whose ailing mother he had visited earlier in the day. Having finished the text, he brought it to his friend, Franz Gruber, teacher and organist in the nearby village of Arnsdorf. Gruber composed the tune within a few hours. At midnight Mass, the hushed congregation in the little church heard the first performance of Stille Nacht.

Today a modest monument in Oberndorf perpetuates the memory of the men who gave us "Silent Night": the priest-poet, Joseph Mohr (1848), and the composer, Franz Gruber (1863). Stille Nacht was first performed to the accompaniment of a guitar. The composer later wrote an orchestration for strings, French horn, and organ. Father Mohr called it Weihnachtslied (Christmas song). It was first published at Leipzig, in 1834. The commonly used English translation appeared in a Methodist hymnal in Boston, in 1871, and had been compiled from various preceding translations. (The name of the compiler is unknown.) In Latin countries, especially in rural sections of Spain and South America, many towns have their traditional Christmas carols which have now become part of American Christmas lore in certain sections of the country. These are carols of childlike simplicity, often humorous in parts, but always devout and tender.

The local carol of the town Ocumare de la Costa (Venezuela), a jewel of popular Christmas music, is a good illustration (El Niño Jesús ha nacido ya): The little child Jesus is already here, The Kings and the shepherds adore without fear. There is much to behold for the wise and the fool: Saint Joseph, the Virgin; the ox and the mule. Let us adore the little child With pleasure and happy cheer; Let us adore as the Magi do As the Magi adore Him here.28 The first mention of Christmas caroling in America is recorded by Father Bartholomew Vimont, S.J., in his report on the state of the Huron mission, dated Quebec, October 1, 1645. In it he described the zeal and devotion which the Christian Hurons displayed in celebrating Christmas. Speaking of the Indians at Mackinac (now Mackinaw, Michigan), one of the most remote missions of New France, he says: "The savages have a particular devotion for the night that was enlightened by the birth of the Son of God. There was not one who refused to fast on the day that preceded it.

They built a small chapel of cedar and fir branches in honor of the manger of the infant Jesus. They wished to perform some penance for better receiving Him into their hearts on that holy day, and even those who were at a distance of two days'' journey met at a given place to sing hymns in honor of the new-born Child. . . . Neither the inconvenience of the snow nor the severity of the cold could stifle the ardor of their devotion."29 This ancient custom of singing carols in public was revived in America at the beginning of this century. In Boston, the first organized Christmas eve caroling took place on the streets of Beacon Hill in 1908 and continues to this day, many families holding open house. In St. Louis it was started in 1909 by groups of young people who sang their carols before every house with a lighted candle in its windows. Organized groups of carol-singers may now be found in thousands of American cities and towns.

In French Canada, the caroling is performed either a few days before Christmas or on New Year''s eve, by young men and women dressed in old-style country costumes (La guignolée), who go from house to house, singing and collecting gifts of food and clothes for the poor of the town. In Hungary, in Poland, and other Slavic countries singers go from house to house carrying a huge star, lighted inside. After their carols are sung, some of the groups enact scenes from the Nativity, the visit of the Magi, the court of King Herod, etc.; this custom is called Kolednicy in Polish, Bethlehem in Hungarian. National groups in this country have done much to preserve some of these customs during the holiday season. Again, it would fill a small volume to include all of them. Endnotes 27. See The Trapp Family Singers, Souvenir Book Publishing Co., New York, 1948, p. 4; also the article on the Rainer Singers by Hans Nathan, in the Musical Quarterly, G. Schirmer, New York, January, 1946. 28.

The author translated this carol from the Spanish version as published in Edasi magazine, Caracas (Venezuela), 1949, with permission of the publishers. 29. The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, ed. by R. G. Thwaites, Cleveland, 1896-1901. Vol. XXVII (1898), p. 210. Activity Source: Christmas Book, The by Francis X. Weiser, S.J., Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1952 Stay in Touch!

Question: In 1818, the Austrian Franz Gruber composed his only published work, the music to a poem by the curate of his church; by what name do we know this Christmas carol?
Answer: Silent Night